Stunning Lake Erie Home for Sale on Ohio's Catawba Island

Step inside this $4.5 million home and you’ll see thousands of fiberoptic stars glittering overhead, as well as sweeping views of Lake Erie and the island of Put-in-Bay from nearly every room.

While Lake Erie Living rarely features homes that are for sale, this one is so unusual that we had to take a closer look. Set in the Catawba Cliffs neighborhood just east of Port Clinton, Ohio, the home is a mix of reclaimed wood from five Ohio barns, diamond plate sheet metal (like toolboxes are made of), thousands of dollars of art from around the world and Catawba stone used in both the home’s interior and exterior.

What brings it all together? The unfettered creativity of its owner, a woman who dreamt up her own ideas and put pen to paper to design a half dozen houses she’s lived in. She asked us not to use her name but happily offered a tour of the home with her realtor, Kim Redfern of Street Sotheby’s International Reality 

“There’s no way to fully describe the house,” Redfern says. “And there’s no way to recreate it.”

We start, naturally, at the front entrance to the 4,920-square-foot (plus finished basement) home built in 2009. With its overhanging burnt amber metal corrugated roof, the middle section of the home has an organic, Prairie-style look. It’s flanked on both sides by wings, evocative of rustic fishing cottages, where the home’s three bedrooms, office and garage are located. A towering wall laid with native Catawba stone to look like an old ruin rises from the back terrace, adding both height and a bit of intrigue to the home’s facade. 

The solid stainless steel front door is so heavy that it requires a bit of oomph to open. But the effort is rewarded with immediate views of the lake. Follow your eye and you’re in the home’s show-stopping great room. A crystal chandelier hangs from the soaring ceiling, encased partially by a series of meal “hoop skirts” because “the chandelier needed a little something,” according to the homeowner. Large windows that run at an angle along one side of the great room lend the feel of an open-air structure. (One guest even asked how the room stays warm in the winter — an illusion, the homeowner says, that depends upon the windows being squeaky clean.)

With a gentle push, the glass doors recess into the walls, and the room becomes one with the terrace — and the lake, which is just steps away. The flooring is the same indoors and out, uniting the space. What’s more unusual is the type of flooring used — 3-foot square air conditioning concrete pads found at Home Depot. Why? Simply because the homeowner liked the way they looked.

That’s one of the themes repeated throughout the home. It wasn’t about using the most expensive or impressive of anything. Rather, the intent was to find the materials that added just the right texture, function or touch of whimsy, whether they’re from a local home store or custom made.

The kitchen is one such example. Its semicircular wall of glass windows certainly can’t be found in any showroom. But they rise above countertops so unlike anything seen in today’s sparkling white kitchens that we had to ask Redfern for help in identifying them. “Formica,” she answers with a smile. 

The entire house is a blend of high and low, old and new. The master bath features utilitarian diamond plate sheet metal, but the tub is bordered on both ends by glass walls that stream water with the push of a button (the home is fully automated). A custom chandelier above the tub has the look of bubbles floating in the air, while the flooring below is a wild gold and blue epoxy that spills out into the hallway like a wave. The owner fine-tuned it herself by sprinkling a bottle of glitter onto the still-wet mixture.

We head upstairs to the bedroom designed for grandchildren where two king-sized beds hang like swings from the peaked reclaimed wood ceiling. On two walls, windows fill the room with light. The third wall of windows looks right out on the lake. In this room, too, the homeowner obsessed over the details, both aesthetic and functional. What if one of those swinging beds hit the wall of glass? So she installed a cross beam from an old barn horizontally along the wall, securing it with decorative iron hardware.

Some other details we love: The carpet in the downstairs theater room made of silk ties stitched together. The two-way obsidian stone fireplace that frames a view of the lake as seen from the kitchen. Doors throughout the home that blend seamlessly into walls.

If the property sells for its asking price, it would be the second most-expensive house ever sold in Ottawa County, according to Redfern.

On a shore dominated by traditional facades, Redfern says she knows it’ll take the right buyer who fully appreciates the craftmanship, creativity and wow factor the home delivers. Every time she walks through the home, she says she notices something new.

“There’s simply no way,” she says, “to describe all of the details.”

Located at 4917 E. Cliff Road in Port Clinton, Ohio, the home is listed by Kim Redfern and Lisa Dueschele of Street Sotheby’s International Realty.

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